Effects of L‐arginine on the brain ischaemia‐reperfusion damage in rats: An investigation by somatosensory evoked potentials and histopathology

We investigated whether administration of L-arginine reduces the ischaemia-reperfusion damage in the rat brain. The effects of L-arginine were evaluated by means of somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) measurements and quantitative histopathological investigations. There was no significant difference between groups based on SEP data. The results obtained from quantitative histopathological investigations indicate that the nitric oxide (NO) precursor L-arginine does not appear to have a protective effect on the brain ischaemia-reperfusion damage. Furthermore, histopathological evaluation revealed a higher number of damaged cells in the L-arginine treated rats than in control group. The results of the present study suggest that high concentrations of L-arginine present in later stages of reperfusion might have harmful effects on reperfusion damage in the brain.